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Grass cutting

Highway verges and grass/shrub areas

The Council cuts grass on the highway verges and grass/shrub areas alongside Blackburn and Darwen’s roads and streets to make sure that people can use roads and pavements safely.

These are the grass areas usually outside your door or at the side of a road.

We cut 6 times a year from April to October, approximately once every 4 working weeks during this period. There is a limited budget for grass cutting so this is the maximum amount that is manageable.

Grass areas in housing estates are now under the ownership of Twin Valley Homes.

Rural verges

These are usually a meter wide strip of grass cut at the side of rural or B roads.

We cut the grass once a year to stop the grass from coming onto the road or blocking views.

It is cut between August and October.

Shrub beds

We maintain the shrub beds that belong to the Council. These can be at the side of grass areas or at the side of roads. We carry out pruning visits once every three years (or when needed) to cut back the growth.

Highway / Street weed spraying

Weeds on streets and hard surfaces are controlled for the following reasons:

appearance: weeds look unsightly and collect litter.

safety: weeds can interfere with visibility for road users and hide traffic signs. Weeds in road channels and gullies can prevent good drainage. Their growth in footways may cause uneven slabs and broken tarmac.

All adopted roads, including kerb edges, gullies and footpaths and footways are treated three times a year during the late spring and summer months with additional targeted sprays during the back end of the summer period.

The sprays are timed to coincide with the weed growth for maximum control. Following each application weeds can take approximately two - three weeks for the treatment to be fully effective and the weed to die off.

Blackburn with Darwen Council uses herbicides which have a very low toxicity to humans, animals and insects and can be used in areas open to the public and their pets.

Grass cuttings

We do not collect cuttings as the cost of collection and disposal is considerable.

Clippings on pavements are usually "blown" off the path back onto the grass area.

When we cut the verges we aim to avoid chopping up litter and leaving clumps of grass cuttings on surrounding paths. Sometimes, especially in wet weather, it is unavoidable not to get grass on paths. Where this happens we will do our best to remove it speedily.

Areas that look uncut

Every year there is a natural flush of grass, usually in May and June which can make it look as if the grass has not been cut. The actual timing of the flush will depend on the weather, but the result is a very fast rate of growth, in some instance up to 6 inches in one week alone. Unfortunately we have limited resources for dealing with this so we try to keep to our schedule.

This schedule is also totally weather dependant; if it is too wet, we may have difficulty getting onto the area and the machines may make more mess than is necessary. If this is the case we will have to wait until the ground is dry.

Some areas of grass are long, thick and often mixed with flowers and weeds such as dandelions that grow overnight which will result in a different look to grass which is cut weekly or fortnightly.